NEWS RELEASES:

Center for Clinical Excellence Partnership between Saint John's and Anderson University  

Continuing a tradition of collaboration, Saint John’s Health System and St.Vincent Health have partnered with Anderson University School of Nursing, creating the Saint John’s Center for Clinical Excellence.  The new nursing education facility features the latest technology in patient simulation: the SimMan® 3G, the next generation of patient simulators from Laerdal Simulation.

“Our partnership with Saint John's Health System through the years has been extremely important to our work in nursing education,” said Dr. James L. Edwards, president of Anderson University. “We are especially grateful that they are partnering with us to bring state-of-the-art technology to this vital educational program in which we have such a significant mutual interest." 

SimMan® 3G is a portable, patient simulator for advanced training in teaching facilities. SimMan® 3G has realistic anatomy and clinical functionality, providing highly realistic patient simulation training experiences for the practice of medical teamwork, leadership, and communication skills.

“Our mutually-beneficial partnership and support of the Anderson University School of Nursing has been vitally important for Saint John’s Health System, our associates and our patients for many years,” said Saint John’s President Tom VanOsdol.  We are extraordinarily pleased at this time to join with St.Vincent Health in bringing this state-of-the-art technology to Anderson University and our entire healthcare community.  Our fundamental belief and commitment is simply that better training for our nurses results in better care for our patients, and that’s why Saint John’s is here.”

SimMan® 3G provides simulation-based education to challenge and test students' clinical and decision-making skills during realistic patient care scenarios.  When using SimMan@ in the clinical classroom, faculty may use one of the mannequin's many preprogrammed case studies or they can create their own scenario.

The Saint John’s Center for Clinical Excellence is housed in the School of Nursing’s teaching and learning nursing complex, which was underwritten by a gift from Saint John’s in 1993.

“Students entering the field of nursing today must be increasingly equipped to deal with the demands of a highly sophisticated and complex healthcare delivery system, said Dr. Karen Williams, dean of the School of Nursing at Anderson University. “Through the use of high-fidelity simulators like SimMan® 3G, faculty of Anderson University will be able to accurately duplicate the patient care environment seen in acute and chronic care.  SimMan® 3G will be utilized across the nursing curriculum at Anderson University in order to promote synthesis and application of nursing knowledge.”

The addition of the SimMan® 3G to the Saint John's Center for Clinical Excellence fortifies an already strong nursing program at Anderson University. The School of Nursing at Anderson University is unique from other nursing programs because it integrates a Christian perspective into its programs and the relationships among students, faculty, and staff.

“It has been a pleasure to work with Saint John’s, St. Vincent’s and PHI these past months as we partnered together in crafting a gift which will serve our nursing students and the community for years to come,” said Karen Durica Roller, executive director of Development.  “We’re grateful to these friends whose generosity helped to make the dream of having such a valuable learning tool a reality.  This simulator is currently being used by our armed forces in preparing first responders to emergency and life-threatening situations. We’re pleased to be among the very first higher education institutions in the state to acquire SimMan 3G. The addition of SimMan 3G puts cutting edge laboratory experiences in the hands of Anderson University’s students.”

In addition to the Saint John’s Center for Clinical Excellence, Saint John’s and its partner PHI Air Medical will also bring value-added training experiences to the students.  PHI will provide a pediatric simulator for training of students, and will also provide mass casualty training, and on-site visits to its helicopter on the roof of Saint John’s Emergency Department. 

Saint John’s will provide nurse mentors for Anderson University nursing students, and has also created a student award to recognize academic excellence.   

The Saint John’s Center for Clinical Excellence will also be used by Saint John’s, Community Hospital Anderson and St.Vincent Mercy Hospital in Elwood for their nursing education, training and testing of competencies.   

Saint John's Health System is a ministry of St.Vincent Health, the state’s largest healthcare employer, with 18 health ministries serving 45 counties in central Indiana.  Saint John's is a sophisticated, comprehensive, fully-diversified healthcare organization, providing a full range of quality healthcare services to the greater Madison County area.  It is particularly well known for cancer care, behavioral health, rehabilitation services, and surgical/medical services.

The Saint John’s Center for Clinical Excellence and SimMan® 3G is a part of the Dreams. Discovery. Direction. campaign for Anderson University.  On October 6, 2006, the university launched a $110 million campaign entitled; Dreams. Discovery. Direction. The campaign is the largest fundraising effort in the university’s history. To date the campaign has raised $92 million. Major components of the campaign include $51 million for capital projects, $34 million for endowment and $25 million for operational support.